CC D&M

The Competence Center for Research in Design & Management (CC D&M) at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Lucerne, is a research group in the area of Design & Art. This research group engages in applied research and conducts basic research at the cross sections of organizations, management, business, and public administration.

Through its applied research, the CC D&M supports managers and leaders in the private and public sector interested in planning, developing and implementing innovative, customer-focused and citizen-centric products and services. Many managers and organisations are not aware of their own design principles and design methods and are therefore not able to benefit from different design approaches, alternative design methods and design thinking.

The CC D&M contributes to the international design theoretical discourse with its basic research into the intrinsic relationships of design and change. Key areas of research include organizational change, social innovation and public sector innovation.

Explanation for the Four Bubbles

1. The most common location for design in organisations is on the periphery. Design thinking and design methods have no continuous presence in the organisation. Design is considered an add-on, limited to traditional design problems such as form, function and communication.

2. Design thinking and design methods are practiced somewhere in the organisation and apply to specific products and services intended for external clients, customers, or market. This may be B2B or B2C.

3. Design thinking and design methods are highly visible and occupy a central position. Design unifies products and services across the organisation.

4. Design thinking and design methods are applied at the top level of an organisation as a means of inquiring into a wide range of organisational problems. The aim of this is to develop integrated solutions that reflect a high degree of coherence between the organisation’s internal processes, values, products and services.¹

The CC D&M collaborates with the BA Design Management International and the specialisation Service Design within the MA Design. Members of the CC D&M regularly participate in conferences and maintain an ongoing intellectual exchange with leading design researchers in universities around the world as well as with public and private institutions, businesses, administrations, foundations and civil society organisations. The CC seeks to connect international academic research community with national Swiss enterprises national as well as regional Central Swiss businesses and organizations.